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Between 20 and 25 protesters were arrested this afternoon after they sat in the middle of N.
High Street during a demonstration against the company that runs food-service operations for Ohio
State University's sports venues.

The Service Employees International Union helped organize protests in Ohio and nine other
states. Protesters said Sodexo pays "poverty wages" and that most employees are part-time and don't
receive health-care coverage.

At Ohio State, students and Sodexo workers marched from the William Oxley Thompson Memorial
Library to the new Ohio Union.

The union said ahead of time that civil disobedience was expected. The way it went down was
negotiated beforehand with Columbus police, said Lt. Christopher Bowling.

Protesters walked into High Street during a red light and sat down. Columbus police then warned
the demonstrators that they would be arrested if they did not move. Then officers moved in. The
demonstrators did not resist arrest, and some even joked with officers as they waited in line at a
police wagon.

Bowling said they would be charged with disorderly conduct, a fourth-degree misdemeanor.